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Category: Ideas

Building an online business like most challenges has a lot to do with your ideas. Getting your motivation, frames of reference, and expectations right will have more of an impact on your success than simply following perfect SEO “rules”.
Team Management

How to Manage a VA – My 4 Level Team Management System

This is part 2 in my series on how I hire and manage my team of outsourced workers. Like I said in my first post (how to hire a VA) my ability to get a team of VA’s working for me is mission critical – my business fails if I can’t outsource.

The key to successfully working with a VA is the same as successfully managing people in the real world. It is very simple but not easily done well…

“Provide clear instructions on who is doing what by when”

Common quote I first heard from one of my favorite podcasts – Manager Tools

Disclaimer – I am not as good at this as this post looks. When I hear other people talking about how they systematize their business its all sunshine and roses and their systems all work perfectly. Let me be clear I have much of the system outlined below working well but there are A LOT of areas for me to still improve upon.

(more…)

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Jon October 16, 2013 19 Comments
Team Management

How to Hire a Virtual Assistant in 15 minutes for 1 Dollar Per Hour – Blind Experiment Method

Below is a detailed step by step guide on how to hire a virtual assistant using what I like to call my Blind Experiment Method. There is no interview, I hire 2, fire 1 and the whole process only takes about 15 minutes of my time to get a talented VA for $1/hr – see the video below for an over the shoulder look at me doing exactly that.

2016 UPDATE – Although this is the exact strategy I still use the expected amount you will be needing to pay is at least $3/hr and ODesk is now UpWork.

As I have mentioned on this site several times before my available time to work on my online business is limited! I have a demanding day job, a wonderful wife and very active little 7 month old I love to spend time with. So unlike a lot of other people who talk about outsourcing that are working online full time my ability to outsource is mission critical to any success I have online. (more…)

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Jon September 30, 2013 50 Comments
Mindset

How To Build a Website for One Dollar Guaranteed to Get Traffic and Why It Is a Bad Idea

Like most other internet marketers/online entrepreneurs I struggle with the curse of always thinking up new ideas even though I know I should be focusing on my primary business plan.

Well what I have today is a simple way to build a website “guaranteed” to get traffic for $1…along with an example of how I did it and why it is a bad idea!

What Was I Thinking – This plan was dreamt up and post created on a Saturday night after my baby boy and wife had fallen asleep. I was deep diving into my analytics enjoying a couple beer after my day having started with a teething baby/dirty diaper at 4:30am. So I am not surprised it was not my best idea! But I still find it interesting and hope you do to!  

I have come back and made some edits inputted the results but for the most part this is a pretty raw dump of me thinking through a potential online project and geeking out with Excel… (more…)

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Jon September 16, 2013 36 Comments
Mindset

Who moved my blogging cheese?

There is only one thing you can count on when building an internet based business, you can count on: Change.

If You Do Not Change, You Can Become Extinct – Spencer Johnson

Reflecting back on the 7 years that I’ve been blogging, I’d would absolutely agree that things change constantly.  The blogging world has changed immensely since I started:

  • Engagement has moved from blog comments to social media
  • Blogging is now more about the blogger than the blog itself
  • Blogging is more formal and professional – People expect high quality content, and not just a rant or a summary of what you had for dinner
  • Google has become the single search engine of focus and they control the internet.

I see change almost daily as I read social media updates and read new articles from other bloggers.  All of this change reminded me of a book I read way back in the early 90s: Who Moved My Cheese?
Who moved my blogging cheese?

Who moved my cheese?

If you haven’t read the book, the story is about two people and two mice in a maze.   They stumble upon a large amount of cheese and live happily until one day the cheese is gone.  The two mice quickly move on, expecting that the cheese wouldn’t last.  The mice also quickly find a newer and even bigger cheese.

The two humans remain where the old cheese was, going from shock to anger to fear.  They keep waiting for the old cheese to return, and not eating.  One of them eventually decides to move on to look for new cheese, while the other still struggles.  Finally they do, and find an even bigger cheese where the mice are.  But note, the mice had been eating it much longer.  One of the humans shares some important lessons about change through some writing left on a wall (The writing on the wall):

Change Happens – They Keep Moving The Cheese

Anticipate Change – Get Ready For The Cheese To Move

Monitor Change – Smell The Cheese Often So You Know When It Is Getting Old

Adapt To Change Quickly – The Quicker You Let Go Of Old Cheese, The Sooner You Can Enjoy New Cheese

Change – Move With The Cheese

Enjoy Change! – Savor The Adventure And Enjoy The Taste Of New Cheese!

Be Ready To Change Quickly And Enjoy It Again- They Keep Moving The Cheese.

I’m sure you see the metaphor here.  The maze represents life, the cheese happiness and prosperity, and the mice and two people represent different individuals and how they deal with change.

If you’ve not read it, it really is a good and quick read.   The story always serves as a great reminder of how to handle things when they change or when things don’t work out the way you had planned.  The book is sitting right next to me in my book shelf as I write this, along side a number of other great reads.

Alright….Who moved my blogging cheese?

Perhaps you might be wondering how in the heck cheese applies to blogging (other than making for a great snack with crackers while writing).   I love a good metaphor…The maze represents the internet, the cheese traffic and income, and the mice and two people are various bloggers or web masters.  But I’ll bet most of you figured that out already.

Have you ever asked yourself who moved my blogging cheese?  Of course I don’t mean that question word for word, but a similar type question?   This type of question often occurs as the result of one of the following:

  • When Google makes an algorithm change and they suddenly see a huge drop in traffic and or revenue.
  • When an advertising network goes out of business or gets shutdown by a new owner
  • When high earning affiliate program gets shutdown or restricted
  • When social media makes changes that have large negative impacts to traffic – Facebook comes to mind…
  • Your favorite RSS reader gets cancelled…

There are, of course, many many others.

When some type of change negatively impacts a blog or website, many bloggers sit around asking: “Who the heck moved my blogging cheese?” or “Why did they do this?”.  The change literally freezes them and keeps them from moving forward.

Big mistake.

See, while those same bloggers are sitting around lamenting about the change, many others are moving forward.  The longer you lament, the more your competition will get ahead.

Let’s reflect back on the “Writings on the wall”, and apply them to blogging:

Accept that Change Happens

Face it, things on the internet change, and often at a very rapid pace.  Some times these changes can have large negative impacts to our blogs.  Never fail to remind yourself that change happens.  The blogging cheese will constantly move.  Knowing and accepting this allows you to anticipate it and plan for it.

Google is fairly open about their algorithm changes, at least at a high level.  Pay attention to those changes, consider the impact, and be ready for the change when it occurs.  Social media is a great way to anticipate and understand change, especially if you follow Google staff, SEO experts, and other bloggers.

Also ask yourself: Are you doing the same old things or branching out and trying new things?

Are you monitoring changes?  Are you seeing new things appear on the blogging horizon?   Are you  learning about them and then trying them out early?  Have you tried video?  Are you on Google+ and Pinterest?  Have you looked at the new MySpace?  Have you done a Slideshare presentation? Tried Vine or Instagram videos?

You should be.

Quickly adapt to change

Not that this has ever happened to anyone…

But let’s say you wake up one morning, and head over the Google Analytics to check out your blog stats.   To your shock, you see that your traffic is down 25%.  A little more digging shows that a main keyword you ranked in the top 10 for, you now rank below 30 for.  You see that four other sites are now suddenly in the top 10, all spammy low quality sites.

What do you do?  Sure you research the issue a bit and see if perhaps something is wrong with your blog or some algorithm change went live that would negatively impact you.  By the way, the best way to see if something is wrong with your blog is to head over to Google Webmaster tools.  But be prepared, you might not even find the answer there.  Outside of that, there really isn’t anything you can do.  The change is out of your scope of control.

I have a site that was de-ranked for it’s primary traffic keyword about a year ago.  I suddenly went from #4 to not ranked at all by Google, almost over night and for no apparent reason.  I spent  months trying to figure out what happened.  Nothing in Webmaster tools, no emails form Google, nothing.

My lesson: Research it, try to see if something is wrong, but don’t spend months on it.  Let it go, and find new cheese.  I actually ended up hurting myself more by not letting it go.

When your blogging cheese is gone, move along.  Not standing around waiting for your cheese to suddenly return is incredibly important and will save you wasted time.

Using my example, I should have just changed to another primary keyword – but I didn’t.  I literally kept waiting for it to be restored, and all the while getting mad at Google for screwing me.

Enjoy the Change

Here’s the best part of moving on and changing: In most all cases the change is better!

Not only is the process of changing fun and exciting, once you make the change you’ll discover that things are often better than they were before.  I’ve seen this trend recently on my older niche sites.  The approach that I was using worked great 3-4 years go, but in today’s world resulted in a slow decline in traffic and conversions.  So I changed my approach, using Google’s recommended strategies.  My traffic and conversions are on the rise.

Update 4/21/2013 – Seems the Google tides changed once again, and that same site was pretty much completely de-ranked.  That coupled with a drop in search volume just didn’t make the site worth maintaining anymore, and thus I shut it down.

I also find that by changing my approach, I get to learn new things and learn new perspectives.  Change in the short term can be painful, but change in the long term is fun, and often very profitable.

Remember, the cheese will keep moving

You changed your approach, embraced the change and now you’re enjoying all that new traffic, engagement, and earnings.  Sit back and count your money right?

Wrong.  

Don’t forget, you may wake up tomorrow morning, and cheese is once again gone.  Sure, it may not be gone tomorrow, or the next day, or even the next month, but one day, it will be gone.

Always keep that in mind – the cheese will keep moving.  Expect it, watch for it, plan for it, and embrace it when it does.  Don’t sit around looking for it.

Photo by: loveisabeautifulthing

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Jon July 8, 2013 6 Comments
Ideas

What Does it Take to Be a Successful Blogger

What does it take to become a successful blogger? Well, the first step is believing that you can do it!

You need to be excited about your blogging dreams. Decide, right here and right now, that you can and will succeed.

Become a successful blogger

7 Tips to Help Make Your Blog a Success

Now, with all that said, the next step is to “start blogging” already. And, to help you become a successful blogger, here are seven tips for your blogging success.

1. Commit

A successful blogger is one who’s committed to blogging. When it comes to your business blog, you need to look at it as if it’s your actual brick-and-mortar storefront.

Just as mom-and-pop business owners put hours of time into their companies everyday, you need to do the same with your blog. Try to commit to blogging for at least 4 hours per day, if possible.

 2. Learn From Savvy Bloggers

Every professional in every industry needs coaching. Don’t believe me. Just ask Lebron James or Tiger Woods. The same rings true for bloggers.

Coaches can help you improve your blogging skills by revealing any blind spots you may have.  Some people hire blogging coaches. Others simply learn from other savvy, successful bloggers within their own niches. This approach is free, yet priceless.

3. Publish Your Best Work Every Time

When it comes to publishing blog posts, quantity and quality can go hand-in-hand. Many beginner bloggers concentrate too much on quantity. They’re so eager to get more content published, that they end up with 300-word posts, with no real “meat” in them.

Instead, concentrate on both quality and quantity at the same time. Try to publish 600 to 900 to 1,200 word posts, full of valuable information. Search engines and your readers will value these posts much more than short ones with nothing important to say.

 4. Take Advantage of Guest Blogging Opportunities

If you come across a blog related to your industry that you truly love, check to see if they allow guest posts. They do? Then, take advantage of the opportunity to promote your blogging skills, as well as your blog.

Guest posts allow you to link to your own blog. Readers who like what you have to say will visit your blog as well. Now, you’ve just increased your blog’s readership by posting relevant, useful content on the blog of another successful blogger.

5. “Making Money Online” Should Not Be Your Only Goal

So, you want to make money online? Well, that’s understandable. But, if you want to be a successful blogger, your goals must be much bigger than that. Why? Because you’ll spend too much time watching the numbers, and less time publishing quality content.

And, if the numbers don’t increase at the pace you want, you’ll simply give up on blogging.  If you just continue publishing quality content, your blog will help to increase your sales over time.

 6. Monetize Your Blog

Do you know what it means to “monetize your blog”? It means that you’ve used multiple resources to make money online through your blog. Some great ideas include signing up for affiliate networks, signing up for Google Adsense, etc…

But, for your blog to successfully help you make money, you must also practice some SEO techniques. Using keywords that your target audience is also using in searches, gets more traffic to your site. That means using SEO keywords on webpages, within content and within your Adsense ads. That’s how you reach your target audience.

7. Breath, Stretch and Stay Calm

There are so many things that bloggers tend to worry about. Whether it’s generating more leads, getting readers to leave comments, getting more “likes” and “tweets” or simply making money online, it can still cause you stress.

If you start to feel some tension or find yourself experiencing “writer’s block”, stop immediately. Now, take a deep breath, stretch and calm down. Your creative juices can’t flow properly if you’re worried about anything other than writing quality content.

This article was written by Chad Goulde for The Blog Builders. Want to become a successful blogger? Visit TheBlogBuilders.com for blogging tips to help you start your blog the right way today.

Photo credit: Simon Dean

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Jon June 17, 2013 5 Comments
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